Vietnam recorded an impressive export turnover of 18.97 billion USD in the first two months of 2013, which reflected a year-on-year increase of 23.9 percent.

Of the figure, the export of foreign-invested businesses (excluding crude oil) was 11 billion USD, up 27.5 percent, according to the Import-Export Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

In February, the country’s export reached 7.5 billion USD, down 34.6 percent from the previous month and 9.2 percent year-on-year due to the nine-day long Lunar New Year festival.

Mobile phones and bags were the largest foreign currency earners during the period.

The MoIT’s statistics also showed that Vietnam enjoyed a two-month trade surplus of over 1.67 billion USD, equivalent to 8.8 percent of the total export turnover.